amalgamation of pseudo-bohemian, kuffiyeh wearing, proto-typical
non-conformists who identify as being either Arab or Muslim-friendly
within a post-9-11 context and sit around all day competing for that
one moment of self aggrandizing glory in which they seemingly hog the
intellectual spotlight within pointless, shallow conversations related
to Middle East affairs just to temporarily fulfill an insatiable thirst
for appearing knowledgeable. These types of people are often found in
Cafés checking their Facebook profiles on laptop computers and blogging
about nothing terribly important.

The conductor Daniel Barenboim,
already a contentious figure among fellow Israelis for championing
Palestinians' rights and the works of Hitler's favorite composer, has
accepted honorary Palestinian citizenship.

Barenboim was given citizenship a year ago, but the move didn't
become public until this weekend, when a Palestinian lawmaker mentioned
it after Barenboim held a performance in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

The Argentinian-born conductor is the first Israeli to be granted citizenship by the Palestinian Authority. Lawmaker Mustafa Barghouti said he lobbied Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to make Barenboim a citizen.

Barenboim deserved a Palestinian passport, Barghouti said, because
the conductor had shown "solidarity with Palestinians under the most
difficult circumstances."

Ok, I am confused. There are palestinian passports? There is such a thing as a Palestinian citizenship? I thought the best they could do was a palestinian "Travel document". I thought you needed an independent country to issue citizenships and passports and so on and so forth. But what do I know?

Where is my citizenship ya ikhwanelsharmoota?
When will I, a second generation Palestine refugee be able to trade in
my Palestine Refugee Travel Document for a snazzy new PA passport?

Fair question, no? I am not sure that the PR value of this outweighs the feeling that some palestinians would have on giving an israeli jew a palestinian passport when they don't have one. Kind of Insensitive, don't you think?

Youtube has suspended the account of Wael Abbas – which contained the the egyptian police brutality and torture videos- because there were apparently too many complaints and flags from users- who are not members of the egyptian government or state security, of course- who have deemed the videos inappropriate and offensive. Youtube immediately took action, and suspended the account, claiming that it violated its terms of use. Now, while this may be true in the technical sense, it may benefit them to make exceptions for such videos that do expose certain tyrannical regimes and won;t be shown by mainstream international media, you know, as part of that whole "alternative independent media" thing they have been talking about for some time now. Or they could take on Issander's compromise. Also read Brian Whitaker's take on it!